1. Field of the Invention
The field of the invention is methods for promoting the creation and distribution of artistic works.
2. Description of the Background Art
The current art for promoting the creation and distribution of artistic works almost invariably operates within the confines of the copyright system, which, as currently implemented, does not always achieve a proper balance between providing an incentive to create and providing wide distribution of creative works.
In the current art, methods for providing digitized information to users via the Internet are commonplace. Using these methods, individuals can buy, sell, trade or rent digitized music, written text, videos, and voice recordings over the Internet. In some cases, such as certain web-sites offering music compressed in the MP3 format—users can download such material for free. Unfortunately, in nearly all cases, the material is copyrighted, and legal limitations on retransmission or creation of derivative works are severe and debilitating. Thus, although a copyrighted work may be posted on the web for a period of time, only those individuals who access it while it is posted will be able to enjoy it, and severe penalties attach should those individuals choose to download the work and then retransmit it to others. As a consequence, authorized circulation of creative works is severely restricted and unauthorized circulation of such works is severely punished.
The ease of copying also acts as a deterrent against posting copyrighted material on the web. Indeed, unscrupulous individuals freely copy and sell copyrighted materials, which, according to the copyright industries, costs the copyright industries billions of dollars every year. The net result is that both artistic and academic materials available on the web are of extremely uneven quality.
The problem of easy copying has had an effect on legislation relating to duplication technology, as it is now against the law to provide a device for circumventing a copy-protection measure. Thus, to protect the interests of copyrightholders, DVD technology uses encryption technology to inhibit or even prevent digital copying of those works, and the law prevents individuals from attempting to circumvent the encryption technology. Digital Audio Tape (DAT), despite offering superior recording technology, was for years unavailable in the United States, because of the fear that such technology, used to copy copyrighted works, would erode the profits of copyrightholders. Although now available, legal restrictions make DAT practically unusable.
For established authors and artists—those who already have a market—the features of the copyright regime discussed above may be beneficial. Such creators will continue to be able to sell their works in the traditional forms (such as paper, compact-disc, videotape or DVD), or in copy-protected electronic form, and may even be able to sell their works directly to their fans over the Internet. Nevertheless, even for these individuals, the restrictions of copyright law result in less circulation than would unrestricted retransmission, and therefore less exposure to the public, and—ultimately—to the extent that increased fame will generate increased revenues—less profit for the author.
A number of web-sites exist to provide readers access to uncopyrighted public domain material, including a site named after the inventor of the printing press. These sites are primarily devoted to posting written material that has fallen into the public domain, and which now can be freely downloaded, copied and retransmitted. For the most part, this public domain material is old; with the most recent extension of the copyright term, most such material will be at least 75 years old in the future, and therefore of limited use to anyone interested in contemporary creative work.
The fact that copyright terms last so long also has stifled the ability of artists to create derivative works based on contemporary works. Moreover, in the case of books that have gone out of print, copyright restrictions have in the past made it extremely expensive for anyone desiring a fresh copy of an out-of-print book to obtain one. Authors of out-of-print books often recognize that they are unlikely to make any more money off of their books, and are often willing to sell the rights to their books at relatively low prices. While the advent of widely-available print-on-demand technology will give consumers access to out-of-print work at relatively high prices, this will not appreciably increase the circulation of the works of out-of-print authors.
It is also a fact that the vast majority of works only go through a single publication—thus, a book will normally only have a first printing; a song will have a first cut, a movie a first release. The vast majority of sales of a given work—in some cases, 100% —will occur within the first five years of its publication. Yet, for the remainder of the author's life, plus a further 75 years, nobody is able to copy it without the permission of the copyright holder.
For the would-be distributor or consumer of copyrighted material, it is in many cases a daunting task to identify the copyright holder, especially if the work is more than 20 years old, and (if a written work), out of print. The restrictive copyright laws thus condemn such works to a much narrower distribution than they would have if the copyright term were shorter, or nonexistent. Given the choice, in hindsight, many authors of such works would prefer that their copyright last only a few years. Under such a regime, the author of a successful book could reap large profits during the period of currency, while the copyright remained in force. During the following period of obscurity (a period during which under the current copyright regime, printing is unprofitable), the author would continue to benefit in terms of reputation and name-recognition by the fact that the book had fallen into the public domain, and was therefore available for widespread distribution. The name-recognition gained or preserved by this trade-off might well outweigh (for the author) any up-front financial advantage he may have gotten from his original publisher as a result of his ability to assign a longer copyright term.
In some cases, copyright holders must rely on the “honor system” to obtain financial reward for copying of copyrighted works. In such cases, copiers are encouraged to first ask the author for permission to copy, and then to pay some amount for that privilege. But even when it is relatively easy to do so, few individuals wishing to copy a book would actually take the trouble to contact the author. One set would assume that permission would not be granted and would simply not do the copying. The other set would do the copying, thereby infringing the author's copyright.
In the area of digital music, a growing number of contemporary works are available royalty-free on the Internet, as musicians realize that they will always gain wider distribution if they relinquish rights in their works. Indeed the EFF Open Source Audio License is a mechanism to encourage this behavior. Royalty-free works, however, normally are available along-side, and in competition with copyrighted works (which, as of the time of this application, were freely available through services such as Napster and Aimster). Given the choice, regardless of the potential charge of copyright infringement, many users automatically choose the copyrighted works.
Thus, the copyright laws have resulted in a severe restriction of information flow and—to some extent—a stifling of the popular culture. While it has been a boon to established authors and their heirs, as well as large publishing houses and entertainment conglomerates, the result is that the price of a given piece of creative work is inflated to several times the cost of production by virtue of the monopoly power of the copyright holder. The result—as predicted by classical economic theory—is that fewer people enjoy the work than would do so if the price of the work corresponded more closely to the cost of production.
What is needed therefore is a method for encouraging the placement of creative works outside the confines of the copyright system, in order to promote maximum distribution of such works. This invention meets that need by providing a method for encouraging creators and intellectual property right holders to give up some or all of their copyright rights in exchange for consideration that can be provided by a user of this invention, or by the public.
This invention is enabled by the current art of computer programming and hardware design, which permits a computer programmer and engineer of ordinary skill to perform the programming steps necessary to implement this invention with reference to this description and the accompanying drawings.